Daniel Akaka

Daniel Kahikina Akaka (11 September 1924-6 April 2018) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-HI 2) from 3 January 1977 to 16 May 1990 (interrupting Patsy Mink's two terms) and a US Senator from Hawaii from 16 May 1990 to 3 January 2013 (succeeding Spark Matsunaga and preceding Mazie Hirono).

Biography
Daniel Kahikina Akaka was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1924, and he served in the US Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He worked as a high school teacher before becoming a principal in 1963, and he became chief program planner for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1969. In 1976, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, and he was then appointed to the US Senate in 1990 after Spark Matsunaga's sudden death. He retired in 2013, and he died in Honolulu in 2018 at the age of 93.